Nigeria’s second-richest man Abdul Samad Rabiu calls Femi Otedola a fighter at 64

Abdul Samad Rabiu, Nigeria’s second-richest man and chairman of cement and food maker BUA Group, marked Femi Otedola’s 64th birthday on Wednesday by calling his friend a fighter who does not stop until he wins.

In a message posted on Instagram with a photograph of Otedola, Rabiu addressed him by the nickname “Femo.” He said Otedola had achieved more in one lifetime than most people could manage in several.

Rabiu described the First HoldCo Plc chairman as a man of courage, resilience and determination who stands his ground once he believes in something. He added that he always tells people he intends to stay on Otedola’s good side.

“Femi is one man whose right side I intend to remain on,” Rabiu wrote.

He also praised Otedola’s generosity and loyalty. He wished him long life, good health and peace of mind, and said he expected Otedola’s best years to be ahead.

The generosity Rabiu pointed to runs deep. Otedola has given away more than $40 million over two decades, from a ₦200 million scholarship fund in 2005 to a ₦2.85 billion top-up for a university building last week.

Billionaires.Africa counted 43 separate gifts, drawn from his memoir, Making It Big, and from announcements by the people and institutions that received the money. At the exchange rate when each was made, they add up to about $41 million, or roughly ₦56 billion at today’s rate. The memoir says the list it publishes covers only part of his giving.

Otedola has said he chose to give directly instead of running a foundation, after weighing the cost of offices and staff. He traces the habit to his parents. “My mum passed on the spirit of charity to me,” he wrote in the memoir.

Churches, mosques and schools

The early gifts centred on faith and education. In 2005 his company, Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd., put ₦200 million ($1.5 million) into the Sir Michael Otedola Scholarship Scheme. His father, a former Lagos governor, set up the bursary for poor students in 1987, and it has since helped more than 1,000 students from Epe and nearby communities. Bola Tinubu, then Lagos governor and now Nigeria’s president, chaired the award ceremony.

The same year, Otedola paid ₦300 million ($2.3 million) to finish the National Ecumenical Centre in Abuja, a project stalled since the 1980s. He has said President Olusegun Obasanjo asked him over breakfast for a “small donation.” Otedola said he replied: “No, Baba. I’ll do it all.”

He also gave ₦200 million ($1.5 million) that year to the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta. He followed with ₦25 million toward the Abuja Central Mosque in 2006 and more than ₦75 million to the Ilorin Central Mosque in 2007.

In 2007 he joined a group of donors who put ₦200 million into the Lagos State Security Trust Fund in its first year. The fund buys equipment and vehicles for the police and other security agencies.

He gave ₦100 million to the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education in Noforija, Epe, now the Sir Michael Otedola University of Education. The University of Port Harcourt received ₦80 million for its agriculture faculty in 2008, and his memoir lists a further ₦100 million to the university in 2011.

In 2010 he gave ₦50 million to Christ the King Catholic Church. In 2011 he pledged ₦500 million ($3.2 million) toward the Federal University, Otuoke, in Bayelsa State, one of nine federal universities created that year.

In 2015 the Lagos State Scholarship Board and the Otedola Foundation set aside ₦1 billion for scholarships for poor but outstanding students.

In 2017 he gave more than ₦30 million toward Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church on Victoria Island. In 2018 he gave more than ₦30 million to renovate the Holy Cross Cathedral on Lagos Island, the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos.

Between 2017 and 2019 he gave another ₦100 million to the Lagos security fund, which named him its biggest individual donor of 2019.

Hospital bills and a record cheque

Otedola became best known for paying the hospital bills of Nigerian icons who had fallen on hard times.

Late in 2018 actor Richard Mofe-Damijo appealed to him on behalf of Victor Olaotan. The Tinsel actor had been badly injured in a 2016 car crash and was being treated in Turkey. Otedola agreed to pay, and his memoir puts the cost at more than ₦65.6 million ($130,000).

In April 2019 a Zenon executive handed a $50,000 cheque in Enugu to Christian Chukwu, captain of the team that won the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations. Chukwu had prostate cancer and was treated at the Wellington Hospital in London. Otedola said the bill came to ₦36.6 million and that some of his friends spend up to ₦50 million on champagne.

In June 2019 he paid to fly Peter Fregene, a goalkeeper at the 1968 Olympics who had been bedridden since 2001, from Delta State to Reddington Hospital in Lagos. In July he took over the bills of broadcaster and actor Sadiq Daba after a lung diagnosis. In September he paid for the care of reggae musician Majek Fashek at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, London.

The same year he paid the Super Eagles $25,000 for their one goal against Algeria in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final. He offered to pay for the schooling of a young girl whose video singing DJ Cuppy’s song “Gelato” went viral. He also agreed to pay the school fees of the Ikorodu Bois, the child comedy group his daughter introduced to him. His memoir lists ₦391 million ($1 million) toward the Africa Center in New York that year.

His biggest gift came on Nov. 10, 2019. At a gala in Abuja hosted by DJ Cuppy’s foundation, his daughter Tolani announced ₦5 billion ($14 million) for Save the Children’s work with children displaced by the insurgency in Borno, Adamawa and Katsina states. Then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo called it the single largest donation to philanthropy in the country.

Otedola wrote that he had planned to give ₦2.5 billion but doubled it after DJ Cuppy visited a displacement camp in Maiduguri. Save the Children made him one of its vice presidents in 2021.

On March 27, 2020, he pledged ₦1 billion ($2.7 million) to the fight against COVID-19 through the private-sector coalition set up to support the government. In October 2020 he paid for the heart treatment of Inih Ebong, a former associate professor of theatre arts at the University of Uyo.

In 2021 he covered the kidney treatment of veteran journalist Kayode Ajala, at more than ₦15 million. His memoir records more than ₦17 million for the treatment of Professor Daramola that year. He also paid ₦7.5 million for spinal surgery for Charles Bassey, another member of the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations squad, who died in April 2025.

Augustine University

His largest run of gifts began with a debt. In 2009, owing banks about ₦220 billion, Otedola told a delegation from the new Catholic university in Ilara-Epe that he could not help. He wrote that he privately vowed to fund it if he recovered.

In March 2018 he pledged an engineering building, later raising the commitment to ₦2 billion ($4.3 million) for a four-block complex. The first block cost about ₦670 million. It was handed over in February 2023 and named after his mother, Dame Doja Otedola.

On Oct. 26, 2023, the day he was installed as chancellor, he gave ₦1 million to each of the university’s 750 students toward their fees, a total of ₦750 million. At the same ceremony he gave ₦140 million to furnish the engineering block and ₦110 million for campus street lights and a standby generator.

In October 2024 he committed ₦3.7 billion to a second engineering building. Rising costs pushed the estimate toward ₦4 billion, and on Oct. 30, 2025, he signed the contract and handed the contractor a ₦500 million cheque. That day he also gave ₦10 million to Emmanuel Opeoluwa, a philosophy graduate who uses a wheelchair, and gave copies of his memoir to graduates and staff.

Last week he pledged another ₦2.85 billion ($2.1 million) to finish the building by June 30, 2027. That brings its cost to ₦4.35 billion, of which he has already paid ₦1.5 billion.

His giving outside the university has continued alongside it. He gave ₦1 billion ($1 million) to First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Initiative in 2023. On Jan. 10, 2024, Tolani presented a ₦1 billion ($1.1 million) cheque from him to the Lagos security fund, his third donation to it, which Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu called the largest individual gift the fund had received.

In August 2024 his foundation gave ₦5 million and scholarships to the family of Sodiq Olayode, whose wife had given birth to quadruplets. In July 2026 he sent ₦50 million to Sholape Seriki, widow of former ambassador Demola Seriki, whose first political appointment came from Otedola’s father. He also funds about ₦22 million a year in scholarships for students from nursery school to university.

Two big fortunes

The birthday caps a strong year for both men. Otedola was born in Ibadan on Nov. 4, 1962. He built Zenon into a major fuel importer, then took control of African Petroleum and renamed it Forte Oil. He moved into power through Geregu Power Plc and sold his majority stake in 2025 for about $750 million.

He became chairman of First HoldCo, the parent of First Bank of Nigeria, in January 2024 and now owns more than a quarter of the group. First HoldCo shares have nearly tripled this year, and his fortune passed $2 billion for the first time in September.

Rabiu started out importing rice, sugar and edible oils before building BUA into one of Nigeria’s largest industrial groups, with interests in cement, sugar, flour and pasta. Rallies in BUA Cement Plc and BUA Foods Plc made him Africa’s biggest wealth gainer this year. Forbes put his fortune at $11.2 billion on its March list, second in Nigeria only to Aliko Dangote.

Dollar figures reflect exchange rates at the time of each gift. Today’s naira value uses ₦1,365 to the dollar.